Egypt soldiers kill two would-be smugglers at Egypt-Israel border

Egyptian security forces shot dead two Egyptian men they said were trying to smuggle tobacco into Israel from Egypt, security sources said on Tuesday.

The men had failed to respond to warnings after they were spotted trying to cross the border near El Kuntilla, 55 kilometers north of the border town of Taba, they added.

"A border patrol came across the two youths ... and they asked them to stop. They refused to listen to the warning from the Egyptian soldiers," said an Egyptian border official who declined to give his name.

The men, one aged 21 and the other 38, were from the centre of the Sinai peninsula, where many people make a living by smuggling.

Egyptian forces opened fire and killed them instantly just short of the barbed wire on the border, the official added.